The present invention generally relates to a wire supply assembly and more particularly relates to a compact and efficient wire supply assembly that can be spaced distant from a winding station and that indicates need for replacing spools of wire when depleted.
Manufacturers of motors, transformers, generators, etc. use winding stations to wind wire into coils. The wire is typically copper and may range in gauge from 15 to 25. The winding stations are adjustable to make coils of varying sizes and shapes from the different gauges of copper wire. Typically, winding stations are set out on a floor surrounded by numerous spools of copper wire of various gauges. A winding station may be surrounded by dozens of spools of copper wire of different gauge in order to allow for changing from one gauge to another when different coils are being made. Also, many spools of the same gauge are generally placed around a winding station so as to minimize interrupting operation of the winding station when one spool runs out.
Typically, the spools of copper wire are in the range of a foot or more in diameter and can weigh as much as 600 pounds. Therefore, replacing the spools on the floor around the winding station can be time consuming as many heavy spools may have to be moved to replace a spool which has been used up. Also, having numerous spools sitting on the floor about the winding station takes up a great amount of floor space. Further, access to the winding station for starting up, operating, or maintaining the winding station is made more difficult by the placement of the spools around the winding station. Moreover, when the type of coils made by the winding station is changed, all of the spools around the station may have to be moved. All of this moving, replacing, etc. will likely have to be done by the operator of the winding station, a relatively inefficient use of the time of a skilled laborer.
Some winding stations have included resistance meters attached to a tail end of a spool of wire in use for stopping the winding station when the spool is nearing depletion. Such resistance meters measure resistance in a piece of wire between the point at which the resistance meter is attached and the winding station. The resistance measured is a function of the diameter of the wire, and thus the gauge.
However, resistance meters are subject to a number of drawbacks. For example, resistance meters are inaccurate. They often provide signals that the wire is used up when in fact it is not. Also, resistance meters may fail to provide a signal before a wire is used up, causing the tail end of the wire to be fed into the winding station, requiring the operator of the winding station to refeed a new wire into the station and not allowing proper welding of the tail end of the first wire to the second wire which may be required for the coil being wound.
Also, resistance meters require specific programming in order to be used with different gauges of wire as resistance is a function of gauge. A computer must be used to take into account the gauge of the wire being used and the output of the resistance meter to estimate how much wire remains on the spool. If one gauge wire is used when the resistance meter is set to handle another gauge wire, a faulty depletion signal will occur. In situations where dozens of spools of wire surround the winding station, ensuring that the proper gauge wire is used with each resistance meter, and that each resistance meter is set for a specific type wire which is being used with the winding station, are difficult and problems are frequent.